Rare Book Monthly

Old World Auctions – A Cartography Specialist with an Online Auction This Month

- by Michael Stillman

The latest event from Old World Auctions will open for bidding on November 6. Old World Auctions, owned and operated by Jon and Eliane Dotson of Glen Allen, Virginia, runs its auctions strictly online. Bidding runs for two weeks, so you will be able to bid through November 20. The house specializes in maps, globes, charts, atlases and vintage graphics – cartography for short. The number of auction lots can range from several hundred to close to a thousand. Most items sell in the middle range – hundreds of dollars, though many are expected to reach the thousands and a few are hammered down below $100. Auctions are held on a quarterly basis, so the next one will come around in February.

Old World has been running auctions since 1978 (obviously not online back then). This latest one will be number 147. Bidding opens on November 6 and closes on November 20, with one wrinkle to prevent items from being stolen by last second “bidnapper” style bids. Items remain open for an additional 10 minutes after the close to allow additional offers after those placed at the last second. If none is received within 10 minutes, bidding is closed. If an additional bid is received during that period, the item is kept open for another 10 minutes, with this continuing until 10 minutes passes with no more bids. Then it closes.

Old World Auctions puts a particular emphasis on its estimates. Estimating is a science, but often the data needed can be hard to find. Some auction houses tend to estimate low, hoping to draw more bidders that way. Others may estimate high, hoping for a better price. Old World searches through past auction and other sales records to determine what is the likely price range at this time. This gets difficult for items that have not come up for sale in recent years. In that case, they will look for similar items in an attempt to figure what the market will pay for the piece. They also take into account other factors likely to affect price, such as condition, color, provenance, and edition.

Over 750 items are expected to be posted for the November sale. Along with maps and atlases, we are likely to see some historical books containing maps, geography books, antique prints, illuminated manuscripts, and reference books. All come with a 100% money-back guarantee on authenticity and condition as described. Old World offers material consigned by collectors, dealers and others around the world, and ships to customers in over 70 countries each year.

<b>19th Century Shop:</b> Charles Darwin on sexuality and the transmission of hereditary characteristics: Autograph Letter Signed to Lawson Tait. Down, 17 January [1877].

<b>19th Century Shop:</b> MILTON, JOHN. <i>Paradise Lost. A Poem written in ten books.</i> London: 1667. A very rare example with the contemporary binding untouched and with a 1667 title page.

<b>19th Century Shop:</b> Hamilton secures the ratification of the Constitution: <i>The Debates and Proceedings of the Convention of the State of New-York, assembled at Poughkeespsie, on the 17th June, 1788.</i>

<b>19th Century Shop:</b> The social contract “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains”: ROUSSEAU, JEAN-JACQUES. <i>Principes du Droit Politique [Du Contract Social]</i>. Amsterdam: Michel Rey, 1762

<b>19th Century Shop:</b> “The first English textbook on geometrical land-measurement and surveying”: BENESE, RICHARD. <i>This Boke Sheweth the Maner of Measurynge All Maner of Lande…</i>

<b>Bonhams New York: Fine Books and Manuscripts Including the World of Hilary Knight. December 5, 2018</b>

<b>Bonhams, Dec 5:</b> KNIGHT, HILARY. The Original Portrait of Eloise that Hung at the Plaza Hotel. $100,000 to 150,000